Originally posted by: Sureshot324
Originally posted by: Kenazo
Why the heck do we even bother flying jets. We only have 60 some operation F-18's. Would it not make more sense to put more cheaper planes in the air, with better missiles and electronics? Canada is in no position to be mounting an attack on anyone anyway, go back to wwII P-51's, strap some sidewinders on them, with the most advanced radar available, but put 2000 of them across Canada would be the way to go, I'd think.
It doesn't matter how many p51s you have. Jets could come in with a huge altitude advantage (to increase missle range), fire their missles, and then just run away. The P51's would have no chance to evade the missles. Plus, equiping p51s with AA missles and radar would be very expensive. It would be more cost effective to just buy more jets.
The role of our military is mainly to fight alongside other militaries, not defend our own country. It's very unlikely we'll actually get attacked and if we were, we wouldn't be alone. If the US attacked us, even 2000 p51s couldn't save us
I do wonder though if to a certain extent more cheaper planes are better than fewer expensive planes. Is a $120million+ F22 really more useful that several cheaper jets?